Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Arizona Governor's Veto Praised

A New York Times editorial praised Governor Janet Nepolitano of Arizona for vetoing a law that would required all local police and sheriff's offices to cooperate with ICE on immigration. (See yesterday's blog.) This would have made the whole state law enforcement over iton the image and likeness of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa (Phoenix) County posse. While the governor had used fiscal reasoning in the veto, most opposed to the law warned of racial profiling and harassment of Latino citizens.

. . . SURVEY DOCUMENTS HARD TIMES FOR IMMIGRANTS
The Inter American Development Bank which monitors remittances -- money sent back home by immigrants -- had recently surveyed 5,000 Latin Americans and has come up with a picture of the hardships they're experiencing with the slow-down of the U.S. economy. While the total amount of remittance have grown but at a reduced pace -- $45 billion in 2008 -- the number of those sending back money has decline. Two years ago the Bank reported three quarters of immigrant made remittances, this year less than half did. In delving into the reasons, it discover the usual -- more unemployment, lesser paying jobs, the need to hold two jobs just to keep up, blatant discrimination.. Also the Bank discovered that more immigrants are seriously thinking about going back. The findings came from legal and undocumented immigrants.

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